Eastern Dreams (35 page)

p. 137
, “
the same resemblance … as an oriental mosch”: ibid., 17.

p. 138
, “
probably a tissue of tales invented at different times”: Weber,
Tales of the East
, I, vii.

p. 138
, “
Enchanted Horse [is] evidently [the same as] the Horse of Chaucer”: ibid., I, xxxiii.

p. 140
, “
the learned Baron's”:
Nights
, X, 78.

p. 153
–
54
, “
I am told they have no balls”: Oliver Goldsmith,
Citizen of the World
(London: J. Newbery, 1762), 138–39.

p. 157
, “
a most valuable, praiseworthy, painstaking, learned and delightful work”: James Henry Leigh Hunt, “New Translations of the Arabian Nights,”
London and Westminster Review
, 1839. XXXIII, Art. iii, 113.

p. 157
, “
excessively
perverted
the work”: Edward William Lane,
The Arabian Nights' Entertainments
, hereafter
Arabian Nights
(London: Bliss, Sands, and Foster, 1859), 7.

p. 157
, “
lameness, puerility and indecency”: Stanley Lane-Poole, Preface to
Arabian Nights' Entertainments
(London: Bliss, Sands, and Foster, 1859). Quoted in Irwin,
Companion
, 24.

p. 158
, “
amiable and devoted Arabist”:
Nights
, I, xii; “garbled and mutilated”: Richard F. Burton,
Supplemental Nights
, 6 vols., hereafter
Supplemental Nights
(London: Printed for the Kama Shastra Society of London and Benares, 1886–88), VI, 422.

p. 158
, “
the Arabian Nights into the Arabian Chapters”:
Nights
, I, xii.

p. 158
, “
When he [Lane] pronounces The Nights”:
Nights
, X, 79.

p. 159
, “
right to omit such tales, anecdotes, etc.”:
Arabian Nights
, 12.

Chapter 7: The Victorian Rivals

p. 163
, “
an uncontrollable imagination and a fondness for fun”: Thomas Wright,
Life of John Payne
(London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1919), 15.

p. 164
, “
segregate himself in a crowd”: ibid., 76.

p. 165
–
66
, “
the jaw of a devil and the brow of a god”: quoted in Arthur Symons, “A Neglected Genius: Sir Richard Burton,”
Dramatis Personae
(London: Bobbs-Merrill, 1923), 23.

p. 167
, “
this wondrous treasury of Moslem folk lore”:
Nights
, I, ix.

p. 167
, “
full, complete, unvarnished, uncastrated copy”: ibid.

p. 168
, “
that wonderful work, so often translated”: Richard F. Burton,
First Footsteps in East Africa
, 2 vols. (London: Tylston and Edwards, 1894), I, 26.

p. 168
, “
moral putrefaction … the most familiar of books”: ibid.

p. 168
, “
very little of his [Steinhaeuser's] labours”:
Nights
, I, ix.

p. 169
, “
an unfailing source of solace and satisfaction”: ibid., vii.

p. 169
, “
the first two or three chapters”: Lord Redesdale,
Memoirs
, 2 vols. (London: Hutchinson and Co., 1915), II, 573.

p. 169
, “
fitfully … amid a host of obstructions”:
Nights
, I, ix.

p. 170
, “
These tales … strung together”: Richard F. Burton,
Vikram and the Vampire, or Tales of Hindu Devilry
(London: Tylston and Edwards, 1894), xviii.

p. 170
, “
Here was produced and published for the use of the then civilized world”: ibid.

p. 170
, “
They are not without a quaintish merit”: Huntington Library Collection. Quoted in Mary Lovell,
A Rage to Live: A Biography of Richard and Isabel Burton
(New York: W.W. Norton, 1998), 470.

p. 171
, “
My work is still unfinished”:
Athenaeum
, no. 2822 (November 5, 1881), 703.

p. 171
, “
Your terms about the royalty”: Burton to Payne, March 20, 1882. Quoted in Wright,
Life of Sir Richard Burton
, 2 vols., hereafter
Life of Burton
(London: Burt Franklin, 1968), II, 35.

p. 172
, “
You are ‘drawing it very mild'”: Burton to Payne, May 12, 1883. Quoted in ibid., 42.

p. 172
, “
What I mean by literalism”: Burton to Payne, Oct. 1, 1883. Quoted in ibid.

p. 172
, “
This book is indeed a legacy”:
Nights
, I, xxiii.

p. 173
, “
He succeeds admirably”: ibid., I, xiii.

p. 173
, “
begun … by Galland, a Frenchman”: ibid., X, 95.

p. 174
, “
ordering … old scraps of translations”:
Supplemental Nights
, VI, 390.

p. 177
, “
I may tell you that the work”: Burton to Bernard Quaritsch, n.d. Quoted in Lovell, 670.

p. 177
, “
My conviction is that all the women”: Burton to Payne, September 9, 1884. Quoted in
Life of Burton
, II, 54.

p. 177
–
78
, “
mutilated in Europe to a collection of fairy tales”:
Athenaeum
, no. 2822 (November 5, 1881), 703.

p. 178
, “
I am going in for notes”: Burton to Payne, August 12, 1884. Quoted in Wright,
Life of John Payne
, 80.

p. 178
, “
a
chef-d'oeuvre
of the highest”:
Nights
, I, xi.

p. 178
, “
a book whose speciality is anthropology”: ibid., I, xviii.

p. 178
, “
an opportunity of noticing in explanatory notes”: ibid., I, xix.

p. 179
, “
did not fit into Mr. Payne's plan”: ibid., I, xviii.

p. 179
, “
a faithful copy of the great Eastern Saga-book”: ibid., I, xiii.

p. 179
, “
is highly composite; it does not disdain”:
Supplemental Nights
, VI, 410–11.

p. 180
, “
she snorted and snarked”:
Nights
, I, xiv.

p. 181
, “
of Benedictine monk, a Crusader, and a Buccaneer”: Quoted in
Life
, II, 85.

p. 182
, “
O thou foulest of harlots and filthiest of whores”:
Nights
, I, 76.

p. 183
, “
I don't care a button”: Quoted in Lady Isabel Burton,
Life of Sir Richard F. Burton
, 2 vols. (London: Chapman and Hall, 1893), II, 284.

p. 183
–
84
, “
one of the most important translations”:
St. James Gazette
, September 12, 1885. Quoted in
Life of Sir Richard F. Burton
, II, 290.

p. 184
, “
simply priceless”:
The Morning Advertiser
, September 15, 1885. Quoted in
Life of Sir Richard F. Burton
, II, 288.

p. 184
, “
the most complete, laborious, uncompromising, and perfect translation”:
Vanity Fair
, no. XXXIV (October 24, 1886), 233.

p. 184
, “
As a bold astute traveller, courting danger”: ibid.

p. 184
, “
Probably no European has ever gathered”: Stanley Lane-Poole, “The Arabian Nights,”
Edinburgh Review
, CVIIV (July 1886), 184.

p. 185
, “
I struggled for forty-seven years”:
Life of Sir Richard F. Burton
, II, 442.

p. 187
, “
his great work”: Duncan Black MacDonald, “On Translating the Arabian Nights,”
The Nation
, 71, Part One (August 30, 1900), 168.

p. 189
, “
The girl is soft of speech”:
Nights
, V, 159.

p. 189
, “
every man at some … turn”: ibid., X, 124–25.

p. 189
–
90
, “
dazzled by the splendours which flash before it”: ibid.

p. 190
, “
literary Brighton Pavilion”: Husain Haddawy,
The Arabian Nights
(New York: W.W. Norton, 1990), xxv.

Chapter 8: The
Arabian Nights
Today

p. 192
, “
the most popular book in the world”: James Henry Leigh Hunt, “New Translations of the Arabian Nights,”
London and Westminster Review
XXXIII, Art. iii, 106.

p. 193
, “
ceased to be part of the common literary culture”: Irwin,
Companion
, 274.

p. 197
, “
Where they'll cut off your nose if they don't like your face”: “Arabian Nights,” from
Aladdin
. Music and lyrics by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. The author heard the original lyric in-theatre early in 1993 before the change.

p. 205
, “
the cunning and stupidity, the generosity and avarice”: Abbot, “A Ninth-Century Fragment of the ‘Thousand Nights,'” 133.

p. 206
, “
neutral territory … between the real world”: Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Introductory Essay: The Custom-House,” in
The Scarlet Letter
(New York: Rinehart, 1961), 31.

p. 207
, “
Much the best version”: T.E. Lawrence to Jonathan Cape, June 4, 1923. Quoted in Jeremy Wilson,
Lawrence of Arabia: The Authorized Biography of T.E. Lawrence
(London: Heinemann, 1989), 719.

p. 207
, “
The correctness of Mardrus”: ibid.

p. 207
, “
beneath criticism”: Duncan Black MacDonald, “On Translating the Arabian Nights,” Part Two,
The Nation
(September 6, 1900), 185.

p. 208
, “
For the first time in Europe”: J.C. Mardrus, Arabian Nights (
Le livre des mille et une nuits
), 4 vols. (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1953), I, i.

p. 212
–
13
, “
Then there lived after them a wise ruler”:
Nights
, X, 61–62.

Chapter 9: Infinite Delights

p. 217
, “
there is divinity (the proverb says luck)”:
Nights
, X, 75.

Suggestions for Further Study

For some reason, there are very few works dealing with the
Arabian Nights
that are written with the non-specialist in mind, although you might think that the longevity and impact of the book on global culture would lend itself to something designed as a general history. The enormous number of scholarly studies published in the past generation has helped some, but most of these studies are written, understandably, both by and for the academic community, and are unlikely to provide the general reader with an overall picture of an admittedly complicated subject.

Nevertheless, there are some texts and related material that can be recommended for readers wanting to delve deeper into the history and themes of the
Nights
. Foremost among these are three books that are essential reading, and without which this present volume could not have been written. Although all are written by scholars, each can be recommended to the non-specialist wanting to probe into the labyrinthine world of
The Thousand and One Nights
and not lose his or her way.

Robert Irwin published his invaluable
The Arabian Nights: A Companion
in 1994 to wide acclaim. Since reprinted, it has become the standard text for examining various aspects of the
Nights
—its history and translators, its sources and texts, influence and thematic concerns. Although Irwin divides his text into themed chapters touching on specific subjects such as the various translations, sexuality and literature influenced by the
Nights
, his work is the closest thing available in English to a general overview, incorporating sundry related aspects into a true “companion” to any edition of the Tales.

Muhsin Mahdi published his English-language
The Thousand and One Nights
fifteen years ago, to accompany his Arabic recension of
Alf Laila wa Laila
. In this focused work Professor Mahdi concentrates on presenting—in remarkable detail—the early history of the
Nights
in the West from the details surrounding the construction of the Antoine Galland translation, Galland's “successors” (including Dom Denis Chavis, Jacques Cazotte and Duncan Black MacDonald), and ending with an examination of the four printed Arabic texts that appeared in the nineteenth century.

The best sourcebook for all things
Nights
is
The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia
in two volumes, published in 2004 and easily something to get lost in. With many short articles on the work by various researchers and pundits, its crowning glory is the hundreds of short commentaries on the individual stories making up the different manuscripts and editions—a prime example of creating order out of something that at times appears the very essence of literary chaos.